Lawyers take over government

Wendy Alexander, sister of Douglas, the architect of Gordon's Early Election (cancelled), is now in the middle of a funding crisis of her own, after Jim Dyer, the Standards Commissioner at the Scottish Parliament, reported her to the portentously-titled Procurator Fiscal over ten leadership donations of more than - wait for it - 520 quid:

It appears that Dr Dyer, after taking legal advice, has now decided on his course of action because he is obliged to do so as a result of a memorandum of agreement between himself as standards watchdog and the Crown Office, the prosecuting authority in Scotland.

His basis for doing so, it appears, is that her conduct in not registering the donations, if proved, could constitute a criminal offence. It is now up to the fiscal to decide whether Ms Alexander should be prosecuted.

So now Scotland has fallen prey to the English Disease. No, not the spanking one. The English Disease being, of course, idiotically-drafted standards regulations which are subject to review by unidentified solicitors and which can subsequently cause the business of government to founder over donations which wouldn't be enough to buy a decent laptop. Ho-hum.